Journalist who broke Nassar story to speak at GVSU

Friday

Marisa Kwiatkowski, the Indianapolis Star journalist who broke the Larry Nassar abuse story, will speak on Monday, March 26, at Grand Valley State University.

Kwiatkowski, a 2005 graduate of Grand Valley State University, will speak about her investigative work and the impact of investigative journalism.

Kwiatkowski said she hopes to demonstrate the power of journalism, and its role in explaining and uncovering complex systems during her presentation.

"The kind of journalism we do is not taking things at face value," she said. "There's been a lot of great work done on gymnastics and the issue of sexual abuse in various sports and youth organizations, but what made our investigation different was we were able to show for the first time that there was a policy that USA Gymnastics executives had followed, and that policy had real implications for the safety of children in the sport."

Nassar, a former sports doctor for Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, was sentenced in January to 40-175 years in Ingham County and 40-125 years in Eaton County on several first degree criminal sexual conduct charges.

Previously, he was also sentenced to 60 years in federal prison on charges related to child pornography possession. More than 150 women delivered victim impacts statements at Nassar’s Ingham County sentencing, and over 60 spoke at Nassar’s Eaton County sentencing.

Kwiatkowski said the Nassar story took two years to come full circle, including a year of working exclusively on the investigation with her colleagues Tim Evans and Mark Alesia.

Kwiatkowski will speak at 6 p.m. in the Charles W. Loosemore Auditorium of the Richard M. DeVos Center at 401 Fulton St. West in Grand Rapids. The event is free and open to the public.

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